Month: March 2022

Samsung officially introduced its 32-inch Smart Monitor M8 which was originally announced at CES 2022. This is a 4K (3,840 x 2,160px) resolution VA type LCD with a 16:9 aspect ratio and 60Hz refresh rate. The panel is HDR10+ compliant and covers 99% of the sRGB color spectrum.

You also get built-in AirPlay 2, wireless Samsung DeX support as well as remote PC access functionality. There are two 5W speakers onboard and Samsung is also bringing a detachable 1080p SlimFit camera with tilt functionality.

Smart Monitor M8 runs Tizen OS and can act as a control hub for all your smart home devices. I/O consists of one micro HDMI port and two USB-C ports. You also get Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 4. 2 wireless connectivity and a 65W USB-C output to power on connected phones and laptops.

The monitor weighs in at 9. 4KG and comes in Warm White, Sunset Pink, Daylight Blue and Spring Green colors.Samsung Smart Monitor M8 will retail for $729 with the SlimFit Camera bundled.

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As expected Poco India introduced its Poco X4 Pro to the Indian market. The device comes with a 6. 67-inch 120Hz AMOLED display, Snapdragon 695 chipset and a 5,000 mAh battery with 67W charging. The camera department packs a 64MP main shooter alongside an 8MP ultrawide angle lens and a 2MP macro cam. It also includes a stereo speaker, an IR blaster, and a microphone jack.

For a more detailed look on the X4 Pro and its performance head over to our detailed written review.

Poco X4 Pro comes in Laser Black, Laser Blue and Poco Yellow colors. The baseline 6/64GB model starts at INR 18,999 ($250). There’s also a 6/128GB trim for INR 19,999 ($262) while the top of the line 8/128GB version goes for INR 21,999($288). HDFC Bank card owners get a flat INR 1,000 discount via the introductory offer. First sales start on April 5.

Samsung’s Galaxy A series is still the most popular in our database, but there has been an internal reshuffle and it’s the Galaxy A53 on top now. We then have the Galaxy A73 in second, while last week’s leader – the Galaxy A33 is all the way down in eight.

Redmi’s Note 11 just edged out another Samsung phone – the Galaxy S22 Ultra – for the last podium spot.

The newly announced Realme GT Neo3 sits in fifth, ahead of the Xiaomi 12 Pro, which is exactly where we left it last week.

Apple’s latest, iPhone SE (2022) took seventh, while the company’s greatest iPhone 13 Pro sits in tenth. Between them, the Galaxy A52s sits in ninth.

The means we lose Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G from last week’s top 10.

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The Discover Samsung promo campaign is ending today and it will go out with a bang. Today only you can pick up a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 and get a $100 eCertificate. Note that this deal is available only in the US and only through the that link.

This is a good opportunity for some spring cleaning. Today’s offer can be stacked with a couple of other deals. The first is the Enhanced Trade-in program that accepts phones with a cracked screen and gives you a discount for the Z Fold3 in return. For example, you can get $925 for a damaged Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (and you don’t even need to quit your S Pen habit, you just need a Fold-compatible stylus).

Here’s how much you can get for a old Galaxy or iPhone with a cracked screen

You can also score $100 of Google Play Store Credit, which you can claim from the Samsung Members app.

By the way, Samsung has an extra deal for its own people – using the Employee Offer Program they can claim a 7.5% discount.

PS. while the daily deals are over, there is still time to grab one of the bundle deals. More details on those in the previous post.

Samsung may want to reconsider the launch plans for the Galaxy A73 5G. The results from last week’s poll show that this may be the best phones in the 2022 Galaxy A series. And yet we still don’t know where it will be available or how much it will cost. We do know that the device will be available in a few regions by April end.

We thought that losing the telephoto camera and not having a larger battery than the A53 would hurt it, but that wasn’t the case. The A73 topped the poll and got a better reception than the A53 and A33.

The biggest threat to the A73 may be an S-series flagship instead of the A53. Some folks in the comments seem ready to leave behind the mid-ranger life and go up to something like the Galaxy S20 FE 5G or S21 FE 5G (some even brought up the regular S21). Depending on the pricing in your region, an S-series phone may make more sense than the A73.

How well the Galaxy A53 5G and Galaxy A33 5G do in the market depends on, well, the market. As we mentioned in the original post, the A52s is not available as an alternative in some markets, in others it just costs too much. The A53 5G launched in India earlier this week at a price of Rs35,000 (for a 6/128 GB unit), slightly cheaper than the A52s, but not far off the S20 FE.

The Galaxy A52s 5G from last year is still a viable option as it will receive two more OS updates (it already got one update to Android 12) and will be getting security patches until 2024. That’s great for those who already have an A52s and is pretty good even if you get one now. Quite a few brands offer 2 OS updates and 3 years of security patches even for their flagships.

Still, we expect the Galaxy A53 5G to eclipse the A52s in popularity in most markets. And it will probably do the same to its more affordable sibling, the Galaxy A33 5G. It may be a value for money option among Samsung’s offerings, but the EUR370/PS330 price point pits it against capable alternatives from other brands.

We’ve been hearing about the OnePlus 10R (codenamed “pickle”) for a few months now, which is expected to arrive sometime in Q2 2022. OnePlus hasn’t divulged anything about the 10R yet, but its full specs have leaked online, suggesting it won’t be an entirely new smartphone.

The source claims that the OnePlus 10R will be powered by the Dimensity 8100 SoC (previous rumor claimed Dimensity 9000) and run Android 12-based OxygenOS 12 out of the box. The smartphone will come with 8GB/12GB LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB/256GB UFS 3. 1 storage.

OnePlus 9R

The OnePlus 10R will pack a 6. 7″ 120Hz FullHD+ E4 AMOLED screen with HDR10+ certification and have a punch hole in the center for the 16MP selfie camera. The primary camera on the rear will use a 50MP Sony IMX766 sensor and have OIS. It will be joined by 8MP ultrawide (IMX355) and 2MP macro units.

The 10R will have Gorilla Glass on the front and back, an NFC chip onboard, and support Hi-Res Audio. It will also have Dolby Atmos support and feature stereo speakers, but won’t come with a 3. 5mm headphone jack and an alert slider.

The source claims that the 10R will have two variants – one with a 4,500 mAh battery and 150W charging, and the other with a 5,000 mAh battery and 80W charging. If all this sounds familiar, it is because the OnePlus 10R is said to be a version of the Realme GT Neo3 unveiled a few days ago.

Realme GT Neo3

The OnePlus Nord 3 is also rumored to come with similar specs, which is a bit confusing. We’ll hopefully have more clarity about the two smartphones soon. Perhaps at the March 31 event where OnePlus will introduce the OnePlus 10 Pro for the global markets and unveil the Bullets Wireless Z2 Bluetooth earphones.

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This is the Samsung Galaxy A13 – Samsung’s latest entry-level A series phone.

The Galaxy A13 is a simple phone that provides a good set of specs, an emphasis on display and battery life, at the affordable starting price of EUR190 for the 4/64GB model, which we have today.

The phone comes with a SIM tool and a cable, just like the expensive Galaxy S22 Ultra.

The Galaxy A13 is a handsome phone. It has a minimalistic feel to it with its simple design – the body of the phone is made of plastic and lacks any sort of cutouts or shapes. It kind of reminds us of the unapologetically plastic iPhone 5c from a few years back.

The display is surprisingly good for this budget. Specs-wise it’s unimpressive – a 6. 6-inch 1080p PLS LCD, with no fancy refresh rate. It’s brilliant, bright, colorful, and sharp. In certain circumstances, it can be used as an OLED entry level.

However, using the Galaxy A13 is all that’s needed to reveal its entry-level nature. The phone is not fast and sometimes stutters. It was slow to respond during its initial set-up.

That’s to be expected from the 4GB of RAM and the Exynos 850 chipset inside.

However, the Exynos 850 is an 8nm chip that, in collaboration with the 5,000mAh battery, should provide good endurance.

Another area we anticipate a good return for a reasonable price is in the camera. Especially the main one. It’s a 50MP f/1. 8 shooter that should be quite impressive for this segment. The chipset must be able to handle the resolution.

We’ll find out in our full review, stay tuned!

iQOO unveiled the iQOO U5 in December with 5G connectivity and Snapdragon 695 SoC, and today, the company followed it up with an ‘x’ model, which doesn’t support 5G networks, but costs less.

The iQOO U5x is powered by the Snapdragon 680 SoC, boots Android 11-based OriginOS Ocean, and has two RAM options – 4GB and 8GB. The smartphone comes with 128GB of storage onboard, and it also has a microSD card slot, allowing storage expansion up to 1TB.

The U5x packs a 6. 51″ HD+ LCD with a notch for the 8MP selfie camera, and the rear panel of the smartphone, having a 3D grid pattern, sports an island housing two cameras – 13MP primary and 2MP macro.

The iQOO U5x features a side-mounted fingerprint scanner and a 3. 5mm headphone jack, and fueling the entire package is a 5,000 mAh battery charged through a microUSB port at up to 10W.

iQOO U5x color options

The 4GB/128GB model of the iQOO U5x is priced at CNY899 ($140/EUR130), while the 8GB/128GB version costs CNY1,099 ($170/EUR160). The U5x is already on sale in China through the company’s official website in two colors, but availability in other regions is unknown.

Source (in Chinese)